Stone Hearts, Stone Cold
by Forever Champion
Summary: Why didn't the Telmarines rule from Cair Paravel? An old faun recounts the humiliation of the Telmarine army when they set up house in Aslan's territory. (Set after the Golden Age)


**Disclaimer: As a freelance writer, I do not own anything related to C.S. Lewis's works, nor am I making any profit by this story.**

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_The fall of Narnia and the routing of Telmar, as gathered by witness accounts by Tuvak son of Maer son of Tumnus the faun, servant of Aslan. It is my deepest wish that these records be kept and retold to the coming generations, so that our children and their descendants may know that the Lion has not abandoned us to our enemies. Long life to the Kings and Queens, wherever their journey leads them. All praise and honor be to Aslan, our Keeper and King, from now and to the end of days._

_In the nineteen hundredth and eighty-ninth year of our land I write these words, in the forests south of the Great River, where the scattered few have taken shelter. Across these banks stand the armies which have overtaken the land given to our blessed rulers. I shall not recount what has already been written, of how centuries of searching for our beloved Kings and Queens fell to naught, and our own beast which we put upon the throne brought us to ruin with crimes unspeakable, and that in the land allotted_ _to us by Aslan himself. Our folly brought upon us the ruin of Telmar, and thus we were driven from our homes while the stone pillar of a heinous creature was placed in the throne room of Cair Paravel and declared ruler of our noble territories. _

_This sacrilege upon our heritage and upon the Lion was not to be borne, and many of our young warriors sought to bring it to ruin. Their efforts were severed quickly at the wall of crossbows and swords and they were left to rot, with neither decency nor honor meted to the dead. With our despair at its height, I learned this tale from a Telmarine soldier who fled the castle and perished not long after, his malady as inexplicable as his terror in death. _

_Thus following is the spoken word of one of the personal guards of Caspian the Tyrannical. Not long after the statue of a griffin was placed in the throne room of Cair Paravel, after our bravest youth shed blood to remove this vile degradation from Aslan's holy land, the soldiers of Telmar came to worship and found their guards strewn across the judgment floor, their eyes unseeing and their blood stopped in their veins, with the stone griffin laying on its face in their midst. They removed their dead and sanctified the throne room, re-erecting the statue in its customary place and posting twice the number of soldiers to guard it. In the morning when the priests brought offerings to worship, and behold - there was the griffin on its face, and those surrounding it lay as cold as stone. Again the statue was levered to its base and thrice the numbers of guards posted, with priests among them. _

_On the third morn, in the third watch of the night, so this quivering soldier bespoke to us, "The roar of a great beast shook the castle, and pillars and causeways crumbled like sand cast from the wall. Our people trembled, our catapults snapped in twain, and our strongest young men could no longer hear our orders." (Indeed, across the Great River we ourselves felt the river banks quail beneath our hoofs.) __When the earth ceased to shudder the priests forced open the doors of the throne room, and Lo, there upon the floor lay the statue of the griffin, its wings and arms and head neatly severed from its stone body, as neither pic nor chisel can perfect. The guards and priests lay dead, their breath stolen as though they had never been born. When our messenger stepped into the throne room he felt the weight of an immeasurable spirit, so he saith, and his strength fled his body, so much that even his companion fell across the floor and breathed no longer. This soldier fled to our forests, where he reiterated his tale with many tears, and fell prostate in our midst, to bear the griffin's shield nevermore. If rumors which have reached us our true, then the Telmarines withdraw their armies even as I write. If we but had the strength, we might reclaim the city in Aslan's name._

_Alas, my eyes grow weak, and my fingers too weary to write. Aslan help us in these dark times. May he open my eyes, that I may see his deliverer before my final rest._

_These are the words of Tuvak the faun, faithful servant of Aslan._

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**This story references 1st Samuel chapter 5, when the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines and placed in the temple of Dagon. The statue of Dagon is found facedown on the floor before the Ark three times, the third time with its head and hands cut off. In fear of the Israelites' God, the Philistines return the Ark with golden offerings so that their land will not be cursed. **

**This passage made me wonder about the Telmarines and why they never built up Cair Paravel as a Telmarine stronghold.**


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